Woo…spicy and fun!!

I loved the FMC’s scrolling hobby and how she stumbled into a situation she was not expecting to come to real life. Our MMC had a wild back story and I got a bit of a Christian Grey vibe from him (wealthy, insanely smart, and a bit overprotective/possessive of the woman he loves), which isn’t a bad thing. The banter between these two was also a lot cuter than I was expecting, given the wild way they got together.

Check trigger warnings if you don’t usually read dark romance!

A couple that slays together stays together for sure. I can’t wait for the next book in this series!!

This book will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

This was a "fill-in" while waiting on Brynne Weaver's #3. This DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I can't wait for book 2 in this series. It was seriously fabulous, just dark enough, and the banter was beyond hilarious. I loved every word!!!

Lights Out by Navessa Allen
5/5 🌟 I really enjoyed this read! Thank you to all involved for the eARC of this title!

This book is in the top running for my favorite read of 2024. It had me laughing and gasping out loud. It’s the perfect combination of hilarious, sexy, and dark romance. I am obsessed with Josh and his inner monologues and Aly is spunky and fierce. I sat down and read this in one full go, it was so good I couldn’t stop. I cannot wait for the sequel.

I don’t listen to audiobooks regularly… but I knew I had to make an exception for this one. I listened to this book on my nightly walks and… I’m glad I did. Because my face was as red as a cherry tomato.

This book follows a trauma nurse named Ali, and she’s secretly into watching masked men thirst traps on the internet… and I had to look at my tiktok history for just a moment to realize. She is me. I am Ali.

Josh… well he posts these masked men thirst traps… and when he finds out his best friend was seeing a girl who was really into it… he decides to… break into her house, wear a mask, and make her fantasies come true.

Oh also… Josh is a MASTER computer hacker… so… it makes it very easy to play Ali’s real life masked stalker.

This book, is a riot. It’s so much fun. It lets you just relax into the guilty pleasure of it all, but there’s also touches of serious conversation and circumstances that make the stakes high and the action adrenaline pumping.

There’s a scene where he’s watching her on… on a camera he hid in her house… as you do.. and when he says “don’t” to her covering her camera I screamed so loud. Which was weird… because I was taking a walk in my neighborhood. I’m glad no one was there to watch me freak out.

It’s spicy. It’s like… really spicy. It’s burn your mouth, your eyes are watering, need a glass of milk spicy.

There’s a quote… “I have no regrets about publicly claiming you”… HELP.

Chapter 11…will be written in my autobiography. This chapter will be printed out and buried with me when I depart this earth. Monuments will be built to this chapter… in my head. I literally was sent to space. I took off in a rocket and never looked back.

There is a scene in this book where she’s… having alone time on the bed… and she turns her computer camera on to tease… Josh… and then the lights go out on the block… she’s all alone… and she hears her front door kicked in….and I had enough adrenaline to sprint all the way home when I read that scene. Just kidding I still walked but you better believe… I picked you my pace…

He calls her baby… You know me. My favorite nickname in the world.

Um… when something intense is about to happen between them… Josh says…”No safe words. You want me to stop just say so.”…. Why is that so hot…?

And then the most hilarious scene is when Ali and Josh are talking to someone and she goes “Am I being Gilmored right now?” And then Josh is like… “Yep. He’s going full Emily on you.”

I thought I loved this book and then you throw in a Gilmore Girls reference? I’m a goner.

I had SO MUCH FUN with this story. A refreshing slightly dark very spicy romance that sets up PERFECTLY for more books, more crazy stories, and more romance in the future. I can’t wait!

I am a huge fan of dark romance and I absolutely loved this book! This book was suspenseful, had me laughing out loud, great characters and spice! Everything was well balance too which made it have a great plot.
The chemistry between Aly and Josh was instant and fantastic! And the spice whew!! I ate it up!! They both had me laughing and I loved their banter.
I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ebook!

This is….like a daromedy 😅😅

A dark, romantic comedy!!
And I ABSOLUTELY ADORED IT!
*I could’ve done with less of the sex tbh lol
But I WAS OBSESSED with Josh and his inner monologue!

“I am Batman”

“I don’t know! IM BLIND!”

“What kind of example would I be setting for our son if I let you beat up a family member in front of him?”
**he’s talking about the cat

Honestly, I’m very happy with this story, and the characters.

The pop culture references made me giggle!
“Am I being Gilmored?!”

Anyways.
I think this would honestly be A MUCH BETTER start to *dark* romance than Hooked, or Twisted Love.
Sure it may be a bit more..unhinged what with the stalking and that one 🔪 scene (iykyk) but even still the characters and the humour, really tone down all the other stuff.

And PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!! LISTEN TO IT ON AUDIO!!! It’s amazing!!!
I CANT WAIT for book two!!!

Not what I was expecting! I had heard of this book because of the masked man videos and the *ahem* knife play scene…
There were a lot of interesting characters and developments. The FMC is a nurse named Aly, and she has to deal with a lot of tough cases in her day to day work. She lost her mom and spends her time trying to save everyone else. One of her past times is viewing kinky videos of a masked man that sometimes consist of blood and weapons. She’s a fan and interacts with his account through comments. Her on again off again past boyfriend/hookup is Tyler and when she sends him a screenshot of the masked man asking if they can do something similar, he rejects her and states he’s been seeing someone and the two of them hadn’t spoken in months.
Tyler’s roommate is Josh, and he’s actually the masked man but no one knows. His father was a notorious serial killer and he struggles with trust and relationships.

That’s the basic set up for this dark humor spice filled kinky romance. I enjoyed it and I will read more when the author releases them.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

I was scared to pick this up in the event it didn’t live up to its hype. Shockingly this was my first five star read in ages.

Definitely one for all the girlies with a mask kink. 😉

I was excited to get to read this one. There were so many TikTok videos about this story that I had to jump on this bandwagon. It was very relatable when it spoke of the "thirst trap" videos. Both the characters were fun to learn about and see how they learned about each other. Definitely excited for another story by this author!

Thank you for this arc!!

This book is super funny and i absolutely loved the beginning. The second half became a drag for me.

4.5

I loved this book! This is one perfect for fans of Butcher & Blackbird. I was blushing and literally LAUGHING OUT LOUD the entire book! The author knows how to write witty banter and the story wasn’t lost in the “darkness” of it all. I enjoyed the masktok references and the silly way the couple was with each other. I really enjoyed how this book set up for the next one and how we saw layers of each character. Truly amazing and I breath of fresh air in a book! I cannot wait to read more by this author!

When I started this book I had zero idea what I was in for. Turns out when Navessa Allen writes it, stalker dark romance turns into something entertaining and surprisingly appealing. Aly’s fantasies might not align with my own but that did not matter in the least - despite the subject matter Aly + Josh combo was all kinds of healthy and I absolutely loved that!

Lots of spice and kinks but also great character development, hilarious banter, great chemistry between the main characters and somehow Josh was both dark and super sweet AND such a book boyfriend material! Oh and maybe a tiny side of murder! 👀

Aly’s work also resonated with me on so many levels. She’s a trauma nurse and though my work deals with crisis and trauma in the community, so many things and sayings were so relatable and that made me love her character even more. And there’s a cat and his name is Fred and he was all kinds of awesome!!!

Yes, this book is for a certain kind of reader but I know there are lots of dark romance reader out there who’d love this one! I for one am eagerly awaiting next book in this series (June 2025 😭).

A huge thank you to Zando for my copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book Rating: 5 / 5
Spice Rating: 4 / 5

Wow was this dark romance living up to the genre! I was obsessing over these two MCs! I haven’t read too many stalker romances as they are not my favorite Dark Romance Trope but I LOVED this one!!!

Aly, the FMC, seems like a normal hospital worker on the surface but obviously has some demons and kinks that are NSFW! Josh the stalker MMC, was so perfectly damaged that you felt bad enough for him where it was almost ok to justify his crazy actions but at the same time, if this was real life, you know he belongs behind bars haha! Their crazies just matched perfectly and I was living for it!

If you like dark stalker romances and need a new questionable book boyfriend, then I suggest picking up this book, reading the trigger warnings, and falling in love with Josh!

This quote is just one of a hundred reasons why I loved this book:
“And when he smiled and those dimples appeared? It triggered ovulation. You couldn’t convince me otherwise. Not after the way I stood there staring at him while my ovaries donned their warpaint and started metaphorically chucking eggs at the man.”

Like come on!! I’m laughing still. This book was a fun and wild ride.

Have you ever read a trope and been like "do I like this...?" and upon further reflection decided "yes, I do like this!" We love a queen who embraces herself and a golden retriever who puts his queen on a pedestal(for easier access, ya know)! This book was absolute perfection. 10/10 can't wait to read again. Stalker in the sweetest way possible, yes please!

FIVE SIZZLING STARS I absolutely could not put this book down... As soon as it was available on audio I IMMEDIATELY did a re-read! I am so excited for book two, Navessa Allen has now become an auto-buy author for me!

Butcher and Blackbird vibes and the perfect spice. I honestly think this is a great beginner dark romance book. It’s dark and the spice is spicing, but there’s humor and you can’t help but absolutely love Josh both as himself and as the masked man.

I will say, the first 40% was so strong. I expected this to be a five star read, but the last half dragged on. I didn’t ever really want to pick it up after the masked man reveal. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time but just wish the whole thing was as exciting as the first half.

Read if you like:
🔪 dangerous objects
🌶️ it’s a 5/5 spice yall
🚔 true crime
💀 masked men thirst traps on tiktok
🎧 incredible audiobooks
👀 being scared
🫠 edging
🐱 cat parents
🏃‍♀️ being chased

This is a super fun dark romance. This one is for fans of the Buther and Blackbird series - if you loved that, you'll quickly be a fan of Lights Out as well!

If you loved Butcher and Blackbird like I did, you will enjoy Lights Out! It's full of great banter and dialogue between Aly and Josh. I loved their story. Do be warned of a significant spice level and dark romance.